They Always Eat the Boy

“Why do they always eat the boy?” That was the (not-really-serious) question my witty colleague Sasha Greenawalt whispered to me when someone mentioned the case of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, 14 Q.B.D. 273 (1884), that staple of first-year Criminal Law casebooks. Sasha pointed me to a long string of shipwreck/cannibalism cases and noted a common thread: who gets eaten in the end. Reality-as-metaphor? Crim Law Feminist Law Profs, please weigh in.